Terrorism

Terrorism did not slow down in 2012 unfortunately, thousands of people were killed across the globe in terrorist atrocities. Yet most of those attacks took place in just a handful of countries:

Country	Attacks*	Dead
Iraq	55	1,676
Afghanistan	35	543
Nigeria	21	511
Pakistan	30	425
Yemen	14	328
Somalia	11	78
Russia	9	51
Kenya	8	47
Colombia	5	31
China	2	26

*Co-ordinated attacks that take place on one day are counted as one attack.

Looking at this rather horrifying table you can see that Iraq had the worst year of any country. Terrorists killed over three times as many people as in Afghanistan, the second worst affected country. One of the most prominent terrorist attacks of the year was not in Iraq or Afghanistan, but Pakistan; the shooting of 15 year old Malala Yousafzai. Thankfully Malala survived and is recovering well in a British hospital. There were protests all across Pakistan against the assassination attempt and 50 Islamic clerics issued a fatwā against the perpetrators. Despite this the Taliban claim they still want to kill her and her father. So what was her ‘crime’? Trying to get young girls into education in Pakistan, this infuriated the Taliban who are anti-education especially when it comes to women. As Malala rose to fame in Pakistan, the Taliban increasingly sent death threats to her home and on the internet. But she continued in her struggle, in 2011 Desmond Tutu nominated her for the International Children’s Peace Prize and later won Pakistan’s first National Youth Prize. Time magazine recently selected her as the runner up of Time Magazine’s person of the year.

There was some pleasant news on the terrorist front, Anders Breivik, was finally sentenced to Prison for this mass shooting and bombing in July 2011.  There is finally closure for the families of the 77 killed and those that were on the island of Utøya on that fateful day.

Up until November 2012, Northern Ireland was relatively quiet on the terrorism front, apart from the odd bomb scare. Then on the 1^st of November a prison officer was shot dead. Then trouble began after Belfast City Council voted to fly the Union flag on certain days of the year. That seriously upset some unionists who for the past few weeks have been causing chaos across Northern Ireland, but particularly in Belfast.

Terrorism is something that will likely always exist, it will never go away but certain places such as the Basque region, Northern Ireland and Sri Lanka all prove that things can be done to improve the situation, to show the terrorists that talking produces better results. The West should learn from these if it ever wants to truly ‘defeat the Taliban’.

Malala Yousafzai's page in Time Magazine

Breivik Guilty

Today Anders Breivik was found sane and sentenced to 21 years imprisonment on the charges of mass murder of 77 people and terrorism. The result marks an end to the long episode that began on the 22^nd of July last year when Breivik planted a bomb in Norway’s capital city of Oslo and later went and killed 69 children and teenagers at a youth camp on the island of Utøya. After being declared sane Breivik made a statement in which he said; “I wish to apologise to all militant nationalists in Norway and Europe for not being able to kill more.” Before he got to say anymore he was cut off by the judge.

Many western countries have suffered from serious terrorist attacks, the United States had 9/11, Spain had the 2004 Madrid Train Bombings and the United Kingdom had the 7/7 bombings. Norway’s reaction to the tragic attack was very different from other nations, rather than weakening civil liberties, Norway reacted by making sure the country did not change. As a whole Norwegians have not reacted with hatred for Breivik, rather love for the victims and many are trying to make sure Norway becomes more multi-cultural and more tolerant of immigrants; the very thing Breivik detests.

I think Norway is a phenomenal country, very liberal with a strong social safety net and sensible government. Norway is a model for the world in many aspects, the Breivik case simply emboldens the Norwegian ideal.

Breivik on Trial

The trial of the Norwegian terrorist extremist, Anders Breivik has begun in Oslo, Norwat. Breivik took the lives of 77 innocent people, mostly teenagers. His first attack, in the Labour government, killed eight people in Oslo. After this he drove to Utøya island, to a youth camp and open fired on children. The evil man believed that he was doing good, that he is a foot soldier in a war against Islam and multiculturalism. It is his belief that his attack was the first in a war that will drive Muslims from Norway and Europe.

Besides admitting to having carried out the attacks he denies first degree murder and claims self-defence. He began his case with a salute to the far right.

Although Breivik will almost certainly be convicted, the trial does have one potential benefit for him, as a platform to air his views. To limit this Norwegian authorities are restricting cameras in court to minimise any effect of his words.

Breivik is such an extremist that his words may not touch many but he only needs to inspire one that can kill many more people. We must suppress his voice, he should not be heard.

Empires Today

In 1997 the British handed Hong Kong back to Chinese, with a population of around 5 million this was the last major colony of any country. But the old colonial empires are not totally gone, their remnants still exist and although they are small, they do have major benefits for the countries that own them. Officially the only countries which still have empires are France and the UK, the USA also has areas similar to an Empire, but is not considered to be so. The UK has territories in the Mediterranean, Caribbean, Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans. These are mostly small islands with relatively small populations; the total population of all 17 is around 510,000 people. The benefit for the UK is not the people, but the location, being scattered across the globe means the UK can place military bases around the world. Akrotiri and Dhekeli and the creatively named British Indian Ocean Territory are mostly military bases. By nature of them being islands they significantly increase the size of the UK’s EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone), this is the area over which a state has special rights on exploration or the use of marine resources and extends up to 200 nautical miles from the coast. The UK has 6.8 million km² of EEZ, mainly thanks to the overseas territories. This means that any oil found in that area would benefit the UK greatly.

France also benefits significantly from the remnants of the era of Empires although the system through which France governs them is more complicated than the UK. Contrary to what most people believe, parts of France are outside of Europe, such as French Guiana in South America. These are actually part of France in the same way that Paris and Marseilles are. France also has territories which are not part of France and she governs them similar to hoe the UK governs her overseas territories. France experiences significant benefits just like the UK from its overseas territories such as the ability to put military bases in any ocean and benefits from a huge EEZ, the second largest in the world!

Other countries have remnants of their colonial empires, parts of the Netherlands are in the Caribbean and Portugal owns a number of Atlantic islands. Norway controls a small island in the south Atlantic called Bouvet Island, Denmark controls Greenland and the Faroe Islands and Spain owns a few Atlantic islands. Even the USA owns a few islands in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean. All these countries benefit significantly from the control of overseas territories. This scattering of islands owned by the west on every continent and in every ocean gives the west an advantage that the east will never be able to get. China and India will only be able to place military bases where they please if they harbour good relations with other countries.

The age of empires is long gone, but the legacy of that era still influences the world today. 

Terrorism

Last year was very important for the West in terms of terrorism. It marked the ten year anniversary of the September 11^th attacks in which thousands of innocent people were murdered. Somewhat fitting it was that four months before the anniversary, the mastermind (or at least the figurehead) of the attacks was killed by US soldiers in a raid in Pakistan. The outpouring of joy from many Americans was not unexpected, but it was still slightly disturbing. I’m opposed to the death penalty on principle, but even more so for people like Bin Laden. In killing him the Americans have given him the death he would have wanted, to him and his followers it would be honourable (died fighting for his cause) and the Americans have also made him a martyr. A far worse punishment for him would have been to send him to an American prison where he would rot for the rest of his life.

What we need to think about is the people who lost their lives on September the 11^th and their families that feel the loss of Al Qaeda’s attacks every day.

Islamic extremists weren’t the only group to get huge international attention this year, for in Norway the right-wing extremist Anders Breivik set off a bomb in the centre of Oslo, targeting the government which killed eight people and then proceeded to travel to the island of Utøya dressed as a police officer and shot 69 people, most of whom were teenagers. The horrifying attacks were originally thought to be another Islamist attack, but instead it was soon revealed to be the opposite. The attacks shocked everyone as Norway is one of the world’s most peaceful countries, his actions were the worst incident of its kind since Nazi occupation during WWII. 

Fight war with peace, hate with love and repression with liberty.

The front cover of Time magazine following Bin Laden's assassination.